MPC renaissance and Maschine MkII

[Monchai]

Price wise they can't be compare cause the MPC should be a lot more expensive. beside that what do you guys think interm of workflow and integration with Live?

[botstein]

I played both on Saturday. I picked up a mkII and passed on the MPC.

Also, neither is integrated with Live. The MPC had okay transport control going on. I do this with each instance of Maschine I use in Live viewtopic.php?f=4&t=144164

[The Carpet Cleaner]

Why did you choose the maschine instead of the renaissance?

[humnumb]

This might help.

"MPC Ren's limitations compared to Maschine:

- the Ren still requires you to use the mouse for a lot of things. You can't even nudge notes from the Ren controller (source: Jahrome) and you can't open/close instrument plugin windows from the Ren controller (source: Pete blues, Akai)

- you have to stop the Ren's sequencer to do basic things like loading samples/files (source: Jahrome)

- no 64bit support (source: Jahrome)

- no RTAS support (for anyone using Pro Tools) (source: Dan Gill, Akai)

- it doesn't receive MIDI clock or MTC in standalone mode(source: Jahrome)

- Ren doesn't have independent swing (Maschine has it per sound/group/master) and it doesn't work in realtime (source: Dan Gill, Akai)

- you can't manually add/remove slices (source: IMAKEMADBEATS)

- Ren's software will not run without the Ren controller being attached (source: Dan Gill, Akai)

- the Renaissance controller is not usb bus-powered and requires an ac adapter (source: Bremen)

- the Ren doesn't have a fast pad duplicate feature like Maschine and even if you copy samples to different pads in the Ren, editing a pad will affect all pads instead of each pad having its own setting like Maschine (source: LMSW, Blue Haze)

- copying sequences eats up memory when you're using plugins on the Ren's software. Only the sample kits qualify as programs that can be shared across sequences. That means a few instances of a heavy plugin will peak your CPU. (source: Jahrome)

- Ren doesn't even output MIDI as a plugin (source: bobbybland)

- Ren can't even export a program out to separate sounds. You can't get anything other then a single wave file for an entire sequence and .pgm. Ren forces you to manually copy and paste separate tracks for each drum hit that you want separate, which is extremely tedious and a complete workflow killer. (source: bobbybland)

- using Ren's timestretch and pitchshift overwrites the original sample without giving you an option. Maschine's way doesn't interrupt the workflow because it doesn't prompt you to save as new or overwrite the original in the process, and it's easy to undo. (source: MIDIchlorian)

- editing multiple pads on Maschine is much quicker. When editing multiple samples on different pads on Maschine, as soon as you hit the pad it pulls up the sample on screen ready to be edited. On the Ren, if you want to switch to another sample to edit.. you have to scroll to it, which is a workflow killer. (source: KnockSquared)

- it's hard to do anything but the most basic functions with the Ren controller's built in screen alone. You can do just about anything on Maschine's hardware with my laptop closed. (source: Bremen)

- And even with all that clicking around on the computer screen required on the Ren, it can't even highlight and drag more than one sample at a time. (source: SquareBanger)

- the Ren's sequencer stops every time you simply drag a sample from the browser to a pad (source: Jahrome)

- you can't drag and drop to bounce/export. (source: bobbybland)

- it doesn't even support all of Akai's own legacy MPC file formats (doesn't read .ALL or .APS and ignores things like "Effects, Q Link slider events, Mute groups/mute targets, velocity sensitive parameters (V > Att etc), LFO, sequence track assignments, song files, any JJOSXL specific feature (e.g. NDC related data etc") (source: MPC-Tutor)

- there's a growing list of bugs that the beta testers missed. Simplest things makes it crash (Copying sequences, Clearing programs, Duplicating Inst Program...etc.)
and other bugs like notes getting stuck, screen problems...etc.

and it obviously doesn't have Komplete 8 integration that Maschine has where all presets from Komplete 8 can be browsed and loaded just from the hardware."

[The Carpet Cleaner]

Wow, that was very informative!! Tkx

[dna598]

Prediction:The Akai will tank.

[delicioso]

Prediction:The Akai will tank.

Even without all the limitations listed above, just the massive price difference alone and the fact that they're about 3-4 years late in the game, makes it seem likely that it'll face the same fate as the now discontinued hardware MPCs.

[yur2die4]

If only they could cut a deal with fxpansion haha

[v00d00ppl]

Yes, the rennaissance is years behind Maschine, but do we remember all the complaints Maschine got when it first came out?

The MPC Ren is still on 1.0 and Maschine is on 1.8. It will take time for Akai to catch up. As a member of the MPC-Forums I know that the users have a love/ hate relationship with Akai, but they are constructive enough to help Akai take care of the bugs. When I first got my Arturia Spark it was a piece of crap that could not integrate with live to save it's life. My spark couldn't even do even numbered BPMs. It was sorry until I upgraded to 1.4.I know with version 1.5 the spark might be even better with live. The moral of the story is don't be too quick to rush to judgement. I agree that Maschine is an awesome piece of work with 1.8 and NI is also giving out a soft synth that was 200 bucks when it first came out.

Buying an MPC Ren right now means that you are paying 1300 to be a beta tester, but in a year it will do much better and it will get better with a constructive community. Now 1300 is a lot of hard earned cash. The Ren comes with a soundcard with a decent phono preamp. So if we were to do the math it would cost 600 for a stand alone Akai controller with a 700 dollar soundcard, but there's more. Akai has made their claim that they are using an MPC 3000's AD/DA converters for the outputs at least. The biggest selling point of Ren is that you have an MPC sequencer that can midi up your hardware synth and samplers and you can rock out just like you did with the hardware unit. My arguments may not make sense, but just wait for Akai to develop a better software before you knock 1.0. Name one piece of software that was perfect on version 1.0.

[humnumb]

Akai has made their claim that they are using an MPC 3000's AD/DA converters for the outputs at least.

And that turned out to be a misleading marketing gimmick so they can say it uses the "MPC3000 circuitry". The Ren's vintage mode is software emulation. The "3k circuitry" they're talking about is just the audio outputs of the built-in soundcard being supposedly made with the same components as the 3k, which has nothing to do with the converters. The Ren uses typical commonly found 24bit AD/DA converters. What's even funnier is that this "3k circuitry" of the Ren will actually have no effect on the sound other than just monitoring unless you track the physical outputs back into its inputs.

[v00d00ppl]

Akai has made their claim that they are using an MPC 3000's AD/DA converters for the outputs at least.

And that turned out to be a misleading marketing gimmick so they can say it uses the "MPC3000 circuitry". The Ren's vintage mode is software emulation. The "3k circuitry" they're talking about is just the audio outputs of the built-in soundcard being supposedly made with the same components as the 3k, which has nothing to do with the converters. The Ren uses typical commonly found 24bit AD/DA converters. What's even funnier is that this "3k circuitry" of the Ren will actually have no effect on the sound other than just monitoring unless you track the physical outputs back into its inputs.

That sucks. Time to save up for a 3000 and practcing my soldering skills to put new switches on it.

[starving student]

this thread is like the romney campaign……..full of so many lies it's ridiculous, on the other hand it's kind of cool finding out that paul ryan is an ableton live user.

[starving student]

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum ... p?t=177203

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum ... p?t=177169

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum ... p?t=177222

[starving student]

the ren is on os version 1.0
maschine is on 1.8.1, , how many years was maschine in development before it came out?
how many updates has maschine had?
before the ren is on it's 1.8.1 os release everything in it's 1.0 release is likely to work.
at that time maschine still won't be able to do 85% of the things the ren can do now, and before maschine is able to match the feature set of the ren it will be on it's 9.0 os release like Live 9 but maschine is still very very dope, and the fact that I still use it tells you how good it is as well as how good the ren will be if it only halfway works. I recommend anyone and everyone get a maschine, I love to sequence mine with my mpc-2500 cause it has way more features than maschine minus vst, they make great companions.

[ekwipt]

RENs OS might be 1.0 but they've had 20+ years to get this shit right on release